Setting up three skills laboratories in provincial hospitals in Cambodia

Coaching in neonatal resuscitation

13 October 2017

The Maternal & Newborn Care Project, implemented by GIZ on behalf of BMZ cooperated with GFA and the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM) in improving skills of health staff attending deliveries in public health facilities.

Three skills labs have been established in 2017 at the Provincial Referral Hospitals in Kampot, Kampong Speu and Kampong Thom with the aim of improving Emergency Obstetric and Newborn Care services provided by skilled attendants such as midwives and doctors.

Kampot skills lab before renovations

Kampot skills lab after renovations

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Setting up the skills labs and providing equipment was just the start. It involved discussions at national and provincial level, deciding how to renovate rooms and supervision of the renovations. This was followed by more discussions on how the skills labs would be used including access, keeping the rooms clean and tidy, identifying who would be in-charge of the skills labs and care of the training equipment.

Kampong Speu skills lab before renovations

Kampong Speu skills lab after renovations

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A more critical consideration has been how to encourage busy healthcare providers such as midwives and doctors and their managers to invest their time to use the skills labs.

Therefore, it was decided to link the setting up of the skills lab with the provision of refresher EmONC trainings for all skilled attendants in the four GIZ supported provinces (Kep, Kampot, Kampong Thom and Kampong Speu) using the LSTM 3-day EmONC skills drills package. During the training, everyone had the opportunity to practice the skills drills. This included adult and neonatal resuscitation skills, the management of obstetric emergencies such as postpartum haemorrhage, eclampsia, sepsis and how to manage breech presentations and shoulder dystocia, using the identical equipment provided in the skills labs.

GFA and PHD staff checking the equipment

Students practicing a breech delivery

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All training materials were translated into Khmer and the training was delivered in Khmer with the assistance of translators who supported the UK trainers or by participants who had been selected as trainers. Everyone has been very excited about the trainings and say “It is the best training they have ever attended”.

The skills labs are now being used by groups of students and midwives. Sessions are led by either project staff or hospital midwives. The next steps are to encourage all healthcare providers to use the skills labs, as well as to encourage groups to access the skills labs themselves in a non-formal manner. Operational research will be conducted to measure how the skills labs are used over a one-year period.

Midwife mentors practicing how to use arm for IV injection/venepuncture